Sen. Angus King: 'What We Did' Puts Lives at Risk, Not Torture Report

Former Bush communications director Nicolle Wallace has questioned whether Secretary of State John Kerry was correct in saying that the release of the CIA enhanced interrogation report was putting American lives at risk.

During an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” she asked Independent Maine Sen. Angus King if he thought the report of the torture techniques employed by the agency during the Bush administration could get people killed in acts of retribution by terrorist organizations.

“It’s not the report that’s putting people’s lives at risk, it’s what we did that’s putting people’s lives at risk,” King replied.

But Wallace, who is also a co-host of ABC’s “The View,” interjected: “It’s something we don’t do any more. So you believe re-litigating is worth possibly, as Secretary Kerry said, endangering American lives abroad in 2014?”

King responded by saying: “There’s nothing to say it wouldn’t happen next year or the year after with a different president or under different circumstances.”

Wallace, who served as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s press secretary in 1999, was a senior adviser for the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008.

American embassies were on heightened alert Tuesday amid fears of a backlash to the long-delayed U.S. Senate report into the CIA's interrogation of al-Qaida suspects after the attacks on 9/11.

White House officials have confirmed that they expect the report to be published, even though Kerry warned last week about the impact it could have on Americans and U.S. institutions around the world.

Former Bush communications director Nicolle Wallace has questioned whether Secretary of State John Kerry was correct in saying that the release of the CIA enhanced interrogation report was putting American lives at risk.